Decorative sheet material and process of manufacturing the same



jan. 28, @36 J, J, JACKSQN 2,928,782

DECORATIVE SHEET MATERIAL AND PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME Filed March 2, 195:5

ATTOR Y Patented Jan. l28, 193.6

' UNITED STATES DECORATIVE SHEET MATERIAL AND PROC- ESS OF MANUFACTURING THE SAMEv James J. Jackson, Woodbury, N. J., assignor to Sandura Company, Inc.,

Philadelphia, Pa., a

corporation of New Jersey Application March 2, 1933, Serial No. 659,434

13 Claims.

This invention relates to decorative coverings and to a process of preparing the same and pertains more particularly to improvements in the production of smooth or hard surfacedfsheet materials to be employed as coverings for oors or walls or the like,

The product may be used satisfactorily for. all of the purposes for which linoleum, or painted coverings have been used. It is an improvement on sheet goods having textile or felt backings, whether used for oors or Walls.

The present improvement pertains particularly to the saturation of the sheet. In the manufacture of fibrous materials including felt, for use in iioor coverings, it is important .that a tough, strong and flexible porous sheet be provided.y This is accomplished according to the present in.. vention\by applying to a brous sheet, before or after applying decorations, an oil or a mixture of oil and lacquer which will leave a tough coating on the individual bres of the sheet. The oil, or the oil and lacquer composition is substantially Y uniformly distributed on the bres of the sheet.

A hard surfaced, Wear resisting sheet material may be produced, by impregnating the sheet with saturant composition to obtain the desired toughness, strength and flexibility. 'I'he voids in the brous sheet are only partially lled after treatment with oil or oil and lacquer but. after applying the saturant, the voids are full or substantially so, as distinguished from the product disclosed in myv copending. application Serial No. 659,435 led March 2, 1933 (Case C), in which the voids are preferably only partly filled. Upon drying the sheet, the saturant composition forms a hard, solid mass in the voids between the bres and is generally Ycontinuous in the sheet.

By the expression continuo just used, is meant that the libres of the sheet have been treated with hot saturant which remains between the fibres after becoming hard and the particles of which forman interconnected structure.

Various types of brous sheet'materials includging rag felt or paper felt, woven or matted material may be employed, but for the purposes of the present invention, it is preferable to employ an absorbent matted, brous sheet which will absorb coloring materials and in which colored designs can be produced throughout the thickness 'of the sheet. A brous sheet material which is particularly adapted to the present invention is anew type of felt sheet peculiar in that it has what may be defined as curled or kinky vegetable bres of wood pulp. One such product now available is known as Krafelt and is identied and described generally in British patent No. 313,085 and in detail in copending applications of R. G. Jackson, 541,668, led June 2, 1931 and 634,057, led September 20, 1932, relating to oor coverings and to other articles of manufacture, in which Krafelt" is employed.

Certain peculiar advantages are obtained as a result of using the above special type of absorbent felt base. The felted fibres are swollen as well 5 as kinked and curled and due to this, a more open felt is formed therefrom than previously; also paints and dyes penetrate better than they do in providing similar treatment to other sheets, and also due to thefact that the fibres are curled 10 and hooked and matted together, the dyes and inks, although they may follow the fibre, do not spread out laterally so far as they would on fibrous material heretofore known. For this reason, more definite lines may be formed in the resultant 15 product by printing or otherwise applying decorations. The printed or colored lines are smoother on the edges ldue to the fact that the bres are curled and are not matted down but extend inwardly into the sheet as well as on the surface. 20 Due to the shape of each fibre and the consequent interlocklng of the fibres, a sheet of unusual strength is obtained.

The iibrous sheet treated by the present process may be oi' any color, either the light natural color 25 of the bre or bleached, or any shade suillciently light to receive and display the colors desired for use.

An important phase of manufacturing the product of the present invention is that as well 30 as'having substantially every fibre of a sheet coated, there should be sufficient oil in the goods to give it the proper iiexibility. If there is not enough oil, the proportion of saturant will be too high and the goods Will bel brittle. Fibrcus 35 sheets have va certain capacity for paint, oil, lacquer, and saturant. In determining with proper exactness the minimum ratios of oil and/or lacquer to bre and/or saturant. the oil from each possible source (including oil from 40 paint, sizing and wetting) should be taken into account. 'Ihere should be suilicient oil in the goods before the saturant is added so that the ratio of saturant to oil is not too high.

An example of a highly satisfactory saturant 45 that is preferred is as follows:

About by weight of pale ester gum.

l10% by weight of bodied China-wood oil containing about .06% of cobalt paste 50 a's drier, and About 5% by weight of Halowax (chlorinated naphthalene).

Pale ester gum is used to impart hardness. It is inexpensive, clear, water and alkali resistant, 55 and has a low acid number. It is preferred to other gums and resins since it has all these properties combined.

Bodied, meaning thickened, China-wood oil is waterproof, extremely hard when dried, and 60 the goods.

yet tough and flexible. Other oils and other combinations of oils with varying amounts of driers can be used to add toughening properties to the. saturant.

Chiorinated naphthalene, sold as Halowax, is a preferred type of plasticizer .of proportionately high melting point and light cc-ior. Other light colored waxes may be employed, but they should preferably be miscible with est-er gum and `should not separate out on cooling. Furthermore, a material should be which will permit the satisfactory adherence of a coat of lacquer to the fibrous sheet. K

The combination of ingredients mentioned for use in a saturant, results in a hard, wear resisting, odorless, dirt-resisting materialwhich will harden ready for use in a few hours without the use of other thannormal temperatures. Besides being clear and light in color, the'saturant is Waterproof, acid and alkali resistant and will not change color on exposure to iight. The saturant loses its taci-1 and stickiness at temperatures as low as 135 to 150 F. The saturated goods can therefore be safely handled and even rolled into large solid rolls a few minutes after saturating. The saturant also dries and hardens at normal temperatures while the goods are in the roll.

is in marked contrast to linoleum which requires stoving, treatment in a drying room, for Several weeks at around 140 F.

A preferred form of apparatus employed in the saturation treatment is shown by way of iilustration in the accompanying drawing, in which, the figure is a vertical cross sectional View of a saturation tank and means for handling the sheet.

The fibrous sheet I, preferably after applying decorative coloring material including paints, dyes or inks, and after partial saturation with drying oil or drying oil` and lacquer, is passed over a roller 2 shown above and to the left of a heat insulated tank 3 in which is contained a liquid saturant 4 preferably kept hot as 4by a heating coil 5 through which steam or other heating fluid is admitted by opening a valve 6. The sheet passes inthe direction of the arrows from the roller 2 over a roller 'I and alternately upwardly and downwardly over rollers 8 positioned above the saturant bath and beneath rollers 9 located below the surface of the liquid saturant,

the rollers 3 being in staggered relation with respect to the rollers 9 and driven by means not illustrated. The heating coil 5 is positioned in the bath preferably beneath the rollers 9.

The sheet I passes upwardly out of the hath 4 over a roller I0 and between two squeezing rolls II, by which excess saturant is removed, and drops onto a drain board I2 from which the saturant material drains back into the tank 3. The roils II are preferably heated and driven, and the lower one of these rolls may be adjustable so as to control the quantity of saturant ieft in The saturated sheet passes from the rolls II to a drying room, not shown, wherein the sheet is permitted to dry and harden. By means of the particular arrangement of rollers 8 and 9, and by drawing the sheet tightly around these rollers, air is practically entirely squeezed out and replaced by the saturant material, leaving a solid, hard product after the sheet is dry.

The oil applied before saturation with the above saturant, and either before or after applying decorative coloring, may be aheavy bodied oil including such oils as linseed or castor oil especially in solution in a volatile solvent such aS naphtha or benzene. A mixture of 50% oil and 50% solvent has been found satisfactory. A lacquer preparation that is highly suitable is one containing nitro-cellulose, for instance, mixed with blown castor oil and volatile solvent. The proportions of the ingredients in these compositions depend upon the amount of oil of lacquer coating of the fibres that is found desirable for a given fibrous material.

The application of oil or mixtures of oil and lacquer is found to be particularly desirable after decorating a fibrous sheet with dyes or inks. In this instance, a preferred procedure is to print the goods with dyes or inks, dry the goods, partially saturate-the decorated goods with oils or oil and lacquer compositions, then dry, and then saturate with gum, oil or wax or combinations thereof.

Drying as used in the above description of the present process is to be construed to mean solidification as in the case of materials solidifying in the fibrous sheet by cooling, or oxidizing to a non-sticky solid, as Wellas evaporation of solvent.

The saturant may be applied to a product obtained by a process wherein oil or lacquer material is applied to one side of a. sheet to partly iiil the voids and thereafter coloring materials to the opposite side as set forth in my copending application Serial No. 659,433 filed March 2, 1933, (Case A).

What I claim is:

1. A process of manufacturing decorative coverings from porous fibrous sheet materials, which process comprises impregnating a porous fibrous sheet with a molten saturant consisting of ester gum, China-wood oil and chlorinated naphthalene to substantially completely fill the spaces, in the body of the sheet.

2. A process of manufacturing decorative coverings from fibrous sheet materials, which process comprises impregnating a porous fibrous sheet with a molten saturant consisting of about 85% by weight of paie ester gum, 10% by weight of bodied China-wood oil and about 5% by weight of chlorinated naphthalene.

3. A process of manufacturing decorative coverings from fibrous sheet materials, which process comprises coating the individual fibres in the body of a porous fibrous sheet with a exibilizing and toughening composition containing drying cil without filling voids in the sheet, and saturating the treated sheet with a molten saturant composition consisting of ester gum, China-wood -oil and chlorinated naphthalene.

4. A decorative covering, comprising a fibrous sheet having its individual fibres coated with a film of a flexibilizing and toughening composition containing drying oil and having its interstices between the coated fibres substantially completely filled with a saturant composition consisting of ester gum, China-wood oil and chlorinated naphthalene.

5. A decorative covering, comprising a brous sheet composed of curied and kinked cellulose fibres, the said fibres being coated with a nexibilizing and toughening composition containing drying oil and the spaces between the fibres being substantially filled with a saturant consisting of about 85% by weight of pale ester gum, 10% by weight of bodied China-wood oil and about 5% by weight of chlorinated naphthalene. 6. A process of manufacturing decorative coverings from fibrous sheet materials, which process comprises applying to a porous fibrous sheet a liquid, penetrating, flexibilizing and toughening composition containing a drying oil, coating the fibres in the sheet with the said composition without filling the voids between the bres in the sheet, applying decorative coloring to the thustreated sheet and causingl the decorative material to penetrate well down into the sheet, and saturating the decorated sheet with a transparent, molten saturant composition thereby substantially filling the pores in the sheet.

7 A process of manufacturing decorative coverings from brous sheet materials, which process comprises applying to a porous fibrous sheet decorative coloring material selected from a group consisting of dyes and inksr and causing the decorative material to penetrate well down into the sheet, drying the colored sheet, applying a liquid, penetrating, exibilizing and toughening composition containing drying oil to the dried colored sheet and coating the fibres with the said thereby substantially filling the pores in the sheet.

8. A process of manufacturing fioor coverings from fibrous sheet materials, which process comprises first coating the individual fibres throughout the body of a porous fibrous sheet by subjecting it to a penetrating treatment with a toughening and fiexibilizing composition in-liquid form containing drying oil without filling the voids between the fibres in the sheet, permitting the sheet to dry, and then saturating the resulting treated sheet with a transparent, molten saturant composition capable of solidifying on decreasing in temperature and remaining in the sheet thereby forming a sheet having the voids therein substantially completely filled.

9. A process of manufacturing floor coverings from fibrous sheet materials, which process comprises coating the individual fibres in the body of a porous fibrous sheet by subjecting it to a penetrating treatment with a liquid toughening and f'lexibilizing composition containing drying oil without filling the voids between the bers in the sheet, permitting the sheet to dry and saturating the treated sheet with a molten saturant composition consisting of ester gum, China-wood oil and chlorinated naphthalene, thereby forming a sheet having its voids substantially completely filled.

10. A decorative covering comprising a fibrous sheet having its interstices between the fibres substantially completely filled and containing in said interstices a composition consisting of ester gum, China wood oil and chlorinated naphtha- Iene.

11. A process of manufacturing decorative coverings from fibrous sheet materials, which process comprises decorating a porous, fibrous sheet with coloring material selected from a group consisting of paint, dyes and inks, so that the coloring material extends substantially throughout the sheet, drying the colored sheet, partially saturating the dried colored sheet with an oil toughening and flexibilizing saturant and coating the fibers within the body of the sheet with the said oil saturant but avoiding completely filling the voids between the bers, drying the partially saturated colored sheet, saturating the treated sheet with transparent, molten saturant material thereby' substantially completely filling the previously partially filled voids, and drying the resulting colored saturated sheet.

12. A process of manufacturing decorative coverings from fibrous sheet materials, which process comprises applying coloring material to a porous, fibrous, absorbent sheet to treat it penetratingly with the said material and coloring the fibers wel) down into the body of the sheet but yet not filling the voids between the fibers, subjecting the decorated sheet to penetration successively with two types of material, first impregnating the decorated sheet with a liquid oil material that maingains the sheet in a relatively soft and flexible condition, the said oil material being used in an a ount to coat the fibers in the sheet while yet maintaining the spaces between the fibers open, and second impregnating the resulting porous sheet with a transparent saturant that substantially fills the remaining voids in the sheet and renders the pretreated sheet solid, hard, and wear-resisting.

13. An 'article of manufacture comprising a decorative fibrous sheet material having the fibers tinted substantially through the thickness of the sheet, a coating on the said tinted fibers which coating has the propertiesV of softness and toughness, and the spaces between the coated fibers containing solid saturant material having the properties of hardness and wear-resistance, the said coating and saturant being transparent.

JAMES J. JACKSON. 

